A Midsummer Nights Dream, by William Shakespeare, is a romantic play that presents love in many forms including self-love, the love of parents, and the love between lovers. At the beginning of A Midsummer Nights Dream, Hermia is engaged to marry Demetrius but falls in love with Lysander instead. A subplot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream also involves Helena who has loved Demetrius since they were children. A fight between Hermia and Helena over Demetrius eventually develops into an all-out battle for both men’s affections.
Everyone involved in this complex situation has their own idea about how things shouldn’t be done or shouldn’t have happened. One character, however, stands above the rest in his belief that A Midsummer Night’s Dream should have gone differently. Demetrius is a firm believer in destiny and tries to make A Midsummer Nights Dream work according to his own vision of how it should be. A self-proclaimed man of reason, Demetrius believes that Hermia should obey her father’s wishes without question. The men fight over Hermia, who chooses Lysander over Demetrius.
When she insists on marrying Lysander, Demetrius tells her: “Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. ” (1. 1) His lack of concern and anger over losing Hermia shows just how little he thought of the marriage in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Demetrius is a man who wants A Midsummer Night’s Dream to go the way it should, not the way it actually did. Demetrius also lets A Midsummer Night’s Dream get in the way of his relationship with Helena. When Hermia runs away from him, she bumps into Lysander and falls in love with him instead.
Demetrius tries to make A Midsummer Nights Dream work when he sees Helena again: “The king…hath happily received us; You are to come to him straight; therefore bear your trumps…” (1. 1) His hope for A Midsummer Nights Dream is one of the reasons why A Midsummer Nights Dream does not work out for Demetrius. He is not ready to move on from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and still wants A Midsummer Nights Dream to go according to his wishes, rationalizing Helena away as a “dead thing”.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when Lysander convinces Hermia to elope with him, Demetrius tries again to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream happen: “I’ll follow thee [Lysander] instantly. ” (1. 1) His continued pursuit of A Midsummer Nights Dream leads him deeper into the forest where he runs into Titania and becomes her prisoner. When he wakes up from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Midsummer Nights Dream is even worse than he could have imagined. Demetrius may have tried to control A Midsummer Nights Dream throughout the play, but A Midsummer Night’s Dream ultimately controls him.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is all around him and has a great influence on his future. All of Demetrius’ attempts at making A Midsummer Night’s Dream go as he wanted have failed and left him in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is finally happy with Helena by this point as well as Lysander and Hermia who are “excellent friends” (5. 1) In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is all that matters. A self-proclaimed man of reason, Demetrius believes that A Midsummer Night’s Dream should go the way it should–not the way it does.
His lack of concern and anger over losing Hermia shows just how little he thought of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Demetrius tries to make A Midsummer Nights Dream work when he sees Helena again but his continued pursuit leads him deeper into the forest where A Midsummer Nights Dream eventually controls him. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is all around him and has a great influence on his future. All of Demetrius’ attempts at A Midsummer Night’s Dream have failed and left him in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Demetrius is finally happy with Helena by this point as well as Lysander and Hermia who are “excellent friends” (5. 1). A self-proclaimed man of reason, Demetrius believes that A Midsummer Nights Dream should go the way it should – not the way it does. His lack of concern and anger over losing Hermia shows just how little he thought of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When he wakes up from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Midsummer Nights Dream is even worse than he could have imagined.
The plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream incorporates multiple elements, including folk beliefs such as fairies and love spells; literary works or characters from other authors such as Ovid and Chaucer; and classical Greek philosophical ideas, including that of the four lovers and their lovesick natures, which in A Midsummer Nights Dream are represented by four lovers who wander into the forest where they come in contact with the fairies. Demetrius is one of the four lovers in A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Demetrius’s love sickness is not present when he first appears onstage, but rather it develops in A Midsummer Nights Dream when Helena confesses her love for him, and he rejects her. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream Demetrius falls in love with Hermia after this rejection. However, once Oberon uses the flower on him so that he would fall in love with Helena instead of Hermia, Demetrius turns his affections to Helena and falls out of love with Hermia.
Demetrius is concerned with his reputation, as he feels that because he has rejected Helena’s love it would be improper for him to return to her and marry her. A major aspect of Demetrius’s character appears to be his loyalty towards Lysander: although Demetrius does not reciprocate Hermia’s love, after Lysander leaves for a short amount of time and returns engaged to another woman, Demetrius decides that he will not marry Hermia but will remain loyal to his friend until Lysander returns or something happens that changes the situation.